Kareem Duncan practices on Wednesday in advance of Watervliet’s game against Corinth on Friday.
By Sam Blum - sblum@digitalfirstmedia.com

WATERVLIET, N.Y., >> Kareem Duncan came into his first season as a Watervliet running back ultra-prepared. He fitted his body during the summer with jogs, weight-lifting, and as he says, eating right.

For a player who sat out as a freshman last year to have nine touchdowns in five games, it shows just how far he’s come. The one thing he did struggle with, almost to his detriment, was holding onto the football.

It’s a problem that manifested itself in practice. It seeped into game-play. Duncan even fumbled a would-be game-winning touchdown in what turned out to be Watervliet’s only loss this season at Voorheesville.

“During practice, I started making the running backs actually carry balls through practices, and anybody could knock them out,” running backs coach Bryan Bruce said. “Just tried to alter his holding — high and tight, because they were carrying it low and the ball out a lot. Doing a lot of ball security drills. Just trying to make sure they’re always aware that the ball could come out at any moment.”

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Last season, Duncan’s family didn’t let him play football. There was no junior varsity team, and they didn’t want to send a ninth-grader onto a field with kids several years older than him. The Watervliet coaches would have taken him on the varsity roster, but it wasn’t ever an option for them.

But it became evident early on in training camp that he’d be a go-to player in his sophomore season for the Cannoneers.

Watervliet is 5-1 on the season, in first place of the South Divsion in Class C and an honorable mention in the state rankings. They get to host a winless Corinth team on Friday night with the hopes of closing out the regular season strong. The Cannoneers have a run-heavy offense, and it goes through Duncan.

“It means a lot, it means I’m a leader of the team,” Duncan said. “And the team depends on me. I have to show up every game. And our offensive line shows up for me every game too.”

Duncan is a strong and stocky runner, and head coach Brian Hoefer credits his “incredible” vision for his success as well. He knows, Hoefer said, to make the right cut off the offensive lineman block. And sometimes you can’t teach that.

Hoefer said he’d love to be able to throw the ball more, but his run-heavy offense is just a factor of the personnel that he has to work with. The Cannoneers run the ball well, and it’s shaped what has been a really successful offensive season for Watervliet.

“We saw him at camp and we saw the things he could do,” Hoefer said. “And that was only a glimpse. And we were really surprised at how well he picked up things and he really became the focal point of our team and our offensive leader.”

Watervliet only has 432 passing yards this season, compared to more than 1,200 on the ground. Maybe there have been some issues with holding onto the ball early this season. But those have been addressed, worked on, and as a result, Duncan is becoming one of the better running backs in Class C.

“(Last) year I was kind of nervous,” Duncan said. “I admit I was kind of nervous, kind of scared. I worked out all summer, before this season, just to prepare for this season and be ready.”